Inves­ti­ga­tors from the Khorava Street murder case faced ques­tion­ing from MPs on Monday, into alleged failures by the inves­ti­ga­tion. A par­lia­men­tary com­mis­sion was set up in the wake of large street protests in Tbilisi, which followed the partial acquittal of the suspects in the case and alle­ga­tions the inves­ti­ga­tion was mis­han­dled.[Read more…]

Georgia’s State Security Service (SSG) has launched an inves­ti­ga­tion into Malkhaz Macha­likashvili, the father of Temirlan Macha­likashvili, a 19-year-old boy killed by security forces in Pankisi in December, after he said he ‘and several hundred others’ had planned to blow them­selves up at the SSG offices but changed their minds. Macha­likashvili later explained his speech was merely an emotional speech, insisting he would do no harm to Georgian people.

On 22 November, in a special operation in Tbilisi, Georgian special services liq­ui­dat­ed an armed group which included Akhmed Chatayev, also known as ‘one-handed Akhmed’. Chatayev was con­sid­ered one of the leaders of the Islamic State. During the battle with Georgian special services he refused to disarm, and committed suicide by det­o­nat­ing a grenade. This is, perhaps, every­thing that is known from official sources about the operation in the Georgian capital, which lasted for almost a day.

Police near the flat where suspects were holed-up (Luka Pertaia/OC Media)

One person has so far been detained in con­nec­tion to the coun­tert­er­ror­ism operation in Tbilisi’s Isani District on 23 November. Author­i­ties have promised to disclose further details in upcoming days, but have neither confirmed nor denied media spec­u­la­tion as to the iden­ti­ties of the alleged ter­ror­ists.